Some OEMs, however, still aren't seeing big demand for Microsoft's new touch-centric operating system

Back in November, Microsoft announced that it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses, outpacing the sales performance of its predecessor, Windows 7. Today, just over a month later, Microsoft announced that it has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses (upgrades and licenses sold to OEMs), once again outpacing Windows 7. It took Windows 7 a little over three months to cross the 60 million licenses sold threshold.

While the large number of licenses sold is definitely good news, a recent report suggests that actual usage figures for Windows 8 are below that of Windows 7 at the same point in its release cycle and is actually tracking below that of the much-maligned Windows Vista operating system. Simply put, 60 million licenses sold doesn't mean that there are actually 60 million Windows 8 devices out there in the hands of consumers and business.

“There was not a huge spark in the market," said Emmanuel Fromont, head of Acer's American division. “It’s a slow start, there’s no question.” ASUS CFO David Chang stated, "Demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now." And Fujitsu's President added that Windows 8 demand was "weak".

On the app front, Microsoft announced that customers have downloaded over 100 million apps from the Windows Store.